AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATIONS Whitley, Gilbert P., 1964. Fishes from the Coral Sea and the Swain Reefs. Records of the Australian Museum 26(5): 145–195, plates 8–10. [1 May 1964]. doi:10.3853/j.0067-1975.26.1964.673 ISSN 0067-1975 Published by the Australian Museum, Sydney naturenature cultureculture discover discover AustralianAustralian Museum Museum science science is is freely freely accessible accessible online online at at www.australianmuseum.net.au/publications/www.australianmuseum.net.au/publications/ 66 CollegeCollege Street,Street, SydneySydney NSWNSW 2010,2010, AustraliaAustralia FISHES FROM THE CORAL SEA AND THE SWAIN REEFS* By GILBERT P. WHITLEY Australian Museum Plates 8-10 Figs. 1-15 Manuscript received 15-2-63 INTRODUCTION The scattered islets and reefs in or near the Coral Sea to the east of Queensland are very remote and few zoologists have visited them. An account of the only zoological collection made at Elizabeth and Middleton Reefs appeared in the Australian Zoologist 8 (4), 1937: 199-273. Over the last 15 years or so the Australian Museum has received several well­ preserved collections of fishes from Queensland, the Coral Sea, New Caledonia, Lord Howe Island and other South Pacific localities. The fish-fauna of Lord Howe Island has been catalogued by Waite (1904, Rec. Aust. Mus. 5 (3): 187-230; 180 species listed), but many new records have appeared in the last few decades. The Australian Museum's acquisitions from New Caledonia were listed by Whitley (196 I, Proc. Roy. Zoo I. Soc. NoS. Wales 1958-59: 60-65) but a valuable collection of 456 fishes made by Dr. D. F. McMichael from remote islands in the Coral Sea when he was aboard H.M.A.S. Gascoyne in 1960 has not hitherto been reported upon, except for the description of one new species (Whitley, 1962, N. Queensland Nat. 30 (13 I): 3). This collection contains many Melanesian species and has been of value in studies on their distribution; several novel species or ones of special interest are described or figured in this paper in association with the 577 fishes obtained during the brief visit to Swain Reefs, at the south-eastern end of the Great Barrier Reef, Queensland, of the Australian Museum's 1962 Expedition, which is the main object of this report. Altogether IQ2 different species were collected, but only the more interesting sharks and fishes are dealt with below. Most of them are conspecific with Queensland coral reef forms (especially with those already known from the Capricorn and Bunker Groups) and with New Caledonia and Lord Howe Island species and all of them may be expected to range over a wide area of Indo-Pacific seas when their distribution is better known. Only three of the Swain Reefs species appear to be new: a shark related to a Papuan one, a sea-horse also dredged in Moreton Bay, and an Apogonid with no known affiliations. Two tunnies of possible commercial importance occurred in schools during our visit: the Frigate Mackerel, Auxis thazard, and the Mackerel Tuna, Euthynnus wallisi. Some species of fishes (notably parrot and unicorn fishes) were seen but not collected-they are not listed here. Larval fishes and a few" difficult" species have not been identified. * Including results of the Australian Museum 1962 Swain Reefs Expedition. G 58440-1 146 By hand-lining we obtained Red Emperor, Diacope sebae; Coral Cod, Plectropomus maculatus; Emperor-Sweetlips, Lethrinus chrysostomus, also Varinla louti and Epinephelus forsythi, all good food-fishes. Time did not permit investigation of the fascinating inter-relationships of fishes with invertebrates and other fishes. Parrot-fishes were, however, observed to upend themselves to be cleaned by Labroides dimidiatus. The association between a sea-urchin and the fish Siphamia zaribae and a shrimp (Whitley, 1959, Proc. Roy. Zool. Soc. N.S. Wales 1957-58: 15-17) already recorded from the Capricorn Group, was observed afresh. When the urchin was taken from the water some of the fishes sheltered in the collector's trouser-legs! Some Lovamia were practising buccal incubation. Fertile eggs were found in a female Merogymnus jacksoniensis suggesting that internal fertilization takes place, although it is not known ifthis would be followed by oral incubation as in its West Indian ally, Opisthognathus (see B6hlke and Chaplin, 1957, Science 125 (3243), Feb., 22: 353, fig. I). Dascyllus aruanuswas scarce although its usual host coral was present, and there were few Amphiprion with sea-anemones. Mimicry of a toadfish (Canthigaster) by a leatherjacket (Paraluteres) was noticed; several blennies (Meiacanthus) were nesting in empty gastropod shells and juveniles floated under sargasso weed. Other fishes were attacked by crustacean parasites. AcknowledglDents For help with the loan of fishing nets, wire, winches and other collecting gear the expedition is grateful to the C.S.I.R.O. Division of Fisheries and Oceanography, Cronulla, New South Wales, and to Dr. Donald Francois, of the State Fisheries Branch, Chief Secretary's Department of New South Wales. Mr. A. Mitchell, of Port Stephens, lent shark-lines. The angling experience of Mr. Athel D'Ombrain, of our party, was of great value in the course of the expedition, and Mr. Robert Poulson's pilotage amongst the reefs as well as his hospitality at Heron Island were much appreciated. The Great Barrier Reef Committee's Marine Biological Station, Heron Island, kindly made facilities and specimens available. Excellent photographs from fresh specimens were taken by Mr. Anthony Healy, to whose skill I am indebted for several illustrations to this report and for kodachrome records of transient life-colours. I am obliged to my former assistant, Miss L. Carter, for help in arranging this paper for the press and in preserving and cataloguing the specimens. HISTORICAL NOTES ON SWAIN REEFS Because of their isolation, distance from suitable ports, and the dangerous reefs in their waters, the Swain Reefs have received little attention from naturalists or fishermen until recent years. The earliest published reference to them seems to be Matthew Flinders' remarks (1814, Voy. Yerr. Austr. 2: IOI) that the easternmost parts of the barrier are probably connected with those further distant which Captain Swain of the Eliza fell in with in 1798. "If so, the Barrier Reefs will commence as far south-eastward as the latitude 22° 50' and longitude about 152° 40' and possibly still further ... " "Mr. Swain did, indeed, get out at the latitude 22°; but it was by a long, and very tortuous channel." 147 MAP OF THE CORAL SEA 160" ~.. I ~ F"'"ON ", "I "ISLANDS ------------t-.~I'"-=--:::--'------ '. SANTA CRUZ----'----IO - ~. t>. ISLANDS - ~ . COOKTOWN ~ .1 -\ • 1 NEW H~LMES" REEFS .MAGDELAINE CAYS ", ..... HEBRIDES HERALD CORINGA IS '" MELLISH REEF ,\~~:b:R~ "';J~~u REEF REEFS , """"...... s_ ")MARION REEF .BAMPTON REEFS ;",'~",. 20°--- ----=''1>'1> CHESTERFIELD·.ILES " ,',...... "-,-,,,,""1 E::~)ER~~: RE:=ELLONA REEF '\,\~, ~ : ~a ""SAUMAREZ REEF I • , ~ .'" WRECK REEF (BIRD IS.I "\, NEW SWAIN "\ • CALEDONIA ___________________ _ RE E FS ______________________________________________________________________________________.CATO IS. '.,"" _ TROPIC 01= CAPR ICORN .NORFOLK '" MIDDLETON REEF ISLAND 30°'-_____+- ____J. ________ ,. ELIZABETH REEF -------+-------30· JORD HOWE IS. 152'30 ~T:OMAS cr 4 Oll.... LETT CAY S(}7i I "0 PRICE CAY SWAIN REEFS 1 220 -----+---22. AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM STATION NUMBERS 1-8 CAPRE CAY 4lJ 148 The reefs were visited over the years by trepang fishermen but were probably avoided as much as possible by whalers and traders in the nineteenth century. They are not mentioned in P. P. King (1826, Narrative of a Survey of the intertropical and western coasts ofAustralia, 2 vols.) who, however, gave Sailing Directions (1. c. 2: 259) for Lady Elliot's Island and (ibid.: 384 et seq.) for Elizabeth Reef, Kenn's Reef and other shoals and reefs in the Coral Sea. J. B. Jukes (1847, Narrative of the Surveying Voyage of H.M.S. Fly, I: 13) visited Swain Reefs aboard H.M.S. Fly, with the Bramble in company, in January, 1843. The Bramble investigated the inner reefs but the Fly worked outside them and up towards Bowen. Dirty weather was experienced for a while. Jukes landed on more than one reef and mentioned various corals and collected shells, holothurians, crustacea and echinoderms, including a dark purple comatula or sea-lily (ibid.: 16). The ship's anchor brought up a block of coral rock which the naturalist broke open to obtain an amazing variety of living creatures: "this block was not above a foot in diameter, and was a perfect museum in itself ... What an inconceivable amount of animal life must be here scattered over the bottom of the sea, to say nothing of that moving through its waters, and this through spaces of hundreds of miles." Many " flat circular disks" were brought up on the lead which J ukes thought were the" marginopora of De Blainville ", but Professor Forbes informed him that they were disks of acetabularia (see also page 325). Jukes made no mention of any fishes amongst the Swain Reefs. On page 320 et seq. of his book be briefly described the reefs and soundings and mentions they were named because first traversed by Mr. Swain, in the brig Eliza, 1798. A less formal account ofJukes' life and travels appeared in " Letters and extracts from the addresses and occasional writings ofJ. Beete J ukes . ." (London: Chapman and Hall), 187I. On page 175 the Swain Reefs are mentioned but no natural history is related. Jukes was relieved by the passing of the storm there: "Feb. 2 [1843] What a relief! A lovely morning, smooth, and clear skies. Up, top-masts, top-gallants and royals! Heave away on the Capstan; up with the anchor, and away we go again." H.M.S. Herald may have surveyed in about the 1850'S in the vicinity of Swain Reefs.